FORWARD 2018: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now

The Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave., is pleased to announce the return of FORWARD: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now, the museum’s seventh biennial juried exhibition of Wisconsin artists. It opens on Thursday, November 15 and runs through April 14, 2019. Faythe Levine — Associate Curator and Arts Industry Program Manager at the John Michael Kohler Art Center — and Ariel Pate — Associate Curator of Photography at the Milwaukee Art Museum — juried the exhibition. Out of over 450 submissions received this year, 45 were selected for the exhibition and six will receive awards totaling $3,000. The awards will be announced at the opening on November 15 and will include the Viewers’ Choice Award selected by those in attendance. Awards are generously provided through the support of The Friends of the Charles Allis.

“As a longtime resident of Wisconsin, it’s always refreshing to be reminded of the wide range of creative talent Wisconsin holds,” says Levine. “There was both familiar work and some great surprises in the submissions. I’m excited to see a lot of contemporary Wisconsin artwork from emerging artists in local exhibitions such as FORWARD.”

Levine and Pate selected works that “swing between representational and abstract, but never lose contact with human tactility — whether they are stand-ins for the body or a person, things to be worn, tools to be used, or simply results of mark-making or the artistic process,” says Pate. “Seeing them together in person for the first time was a bit like meeting a group of individuals, each with their own voice and demeanor.”

This year for the first time, select artwork will be displayed in the period rooms of the mansion, providing a dialog between the collection and the exhibition. “Having the opportunity to place contemporary work into the historic narrative that lives inside the Allis mansion and stimulate that space with new energy seemed natural,” Levin adds. “It provides a new context for people to think about and notice things they may not have before.”

Awards and Prizes To Be Announced at Exhibition Opening November 15

Grand Prize $1000

Two Awards for Excellence $500 per Award

Margaret Rahill Memorial Award $400

Director’s Choice Award $300

Viewers’ Choice Award $200

About the Jurors

Faythe Levine | Assistant Curator and Arts Industry Program Manager

John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Her curatorial vision and creative practice are focused on themes of community, creativity, awareness, process, empowerment and documentation. She has made it a priority that her projects stay approachable and accessible to a large audience, interacting with people in a way that establishes creativity as a vehicle toward personal independence.

Ariel Pate | Assistant Curator of Photography

Milwaukee Art Museum

She received a M.A. in Curatorial Studies from the J.W. Goethe University and Staedelschule in Frankfurt, Germany. Pate recently curated Photographing Nature’s Cathedrals: Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and H.H. Bennett, and organized the Milwaukee iteration of The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip, and Helen Levitt: In the Street. Previous projects include ARP! (Art Review and Preview), a Minneapolis-based art publication.

About the Charles Allis Art Museum

The Charles Allis Art Museum is a public-private partnership between Milwaukee County and CAVT Museums, Inc. The museum enriches Milwaukee’s quality of life by creating opportunities for residents and visitors to experience history, culture and the arts, in particular by offering vibrant exhibitions and performances in a stately and intimate urban mansion, which permanently houses the art collection of Charles and Sarah Allis.

Charles Allis — the first president of Allis-Chalmers — and his wife Sarah commissioned prominent Milwaukee architect Alexander Eschweiler in 1911 to design a Tudor-style mansion that they intended to bequeath to the public. The permanent collection features 19th-century French and American paintings, Chinese and Japanese porcelains, Renaissance bronzes, Japanese netsuke, and original furnishings. Curated exhibitions are mounted several times each year along with a variety of other arts programming.

General Museum Information

Hours: Wednesday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Thursday 1:00 to 8:00 p.m., Friday through Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Admission: $7/adult, $5/student & senior (62+), and free for museum members, children 12 & under and active military. Group tours are available for ten or more people.  

nksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day.